Medication dispensing cabinets have been developed in order to store and controllably dispense a variety of medications. A medication dispensing cabinet may include a cabinet body with one or more drawers that are slidably disposed within the cabinet body. The drawers store the various medications or medical supplies. While some of the drawers may be unlatched and freely openable, other drawers may be locked in order to more closely control access to the medication stored in the locked drawers.
Some medication dispensing cabinets are automated and, as such, include or are otherwise associated with a computer that controls access to the medications stored within the cabinet. The computer may allow access to only authorized users, such as medical providers who work in the unit in which the medication dispensing cabinet is located. Once authorized by the computer, a medical provider may identify a particular medication to be dispensed, such as by reference to the medication prescribed to a respective patient to whom the medical provider is attending. The computer may then unlock the respective drawer in which the particular medication is stored so as so provide access to the medication.
Even when unlocked, some drawers may be configured to controllably limit the contents of the drawer that may be accessed by the medical provider. For example, a drawer may include a series of pockets or storage locations arranged in a linear fashion, from the front to the rear of the cabinet. Each pocket may include a predefined quantity of medication, such as a single dose or unit dose of a medication. In order to control access to the medication within the pockets, each pocket may include a lid that must be opened in order to access the medication therein. Some drawers have lids that are locked so as to prevent unauthorized access to the medication within the respective pockets. As with a locked drawer, a computer of an automated medication dispensing cabinet may only allow access to the medication within a respective pocket by unlocking the lid for authorized users who have identified a need for the medication within the respective pocket. In this regard, once a user has been authorized by the computer and the particular medication to be dispensed has been identified, such as by reference to the medications prescribed to a patient for whom the medical provider is attending, the computer may not only unlock the drawer in which the medication is stored, but may also unlock the lid of the pocket in which the medication is stored. As such, the medical provider may retrieve the medication from the pocket having the unlocked lid, but may not access the medication within the other pockets within the drawer, even though the drawer itself is unlocked.
Thus, a medication dispensing cabinet having a controllably locked lidded pocket may provide further control over the access to medications therein. Notwithstanding the level of control provided by controllably locked, lidded pockets, it may be desirable for medication dispensing cabinets and associated drawer assemblies to be further improved in order to facilitate the controlled access to the medication stored therein, as well as the other functions of a medication dispensing cabinet.